The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 266

The Space Between Us 

LUCAS’S POV: 

“I know,” I said. “That is what makes this complicated.” 

And that was the state of things for weeks after. Me in my flat, Martin in his, the relationship sitting in some undefined territory with no good ñame. 

I kept myself moving. I threw myself into work, into the Prestige legal prep, into Lucas things, because Lucas things were something I was excellent at and being excellent was a good place to hide when you did not want to feel what you were feeling. 

Then came the beach house trip. 

Hannah had bought a beach house in St Louisiana a few months back, which she had done without telling anyone including her husband, which was the most Hannah thing I had ever heard of and I had found it so funny at the time. She invited everyone for two weeks and I had said yes before I remembered that Martin had also been invited and that this was going to be exactly as awkward as it sounded. 

It was. 

We were both there. We were both very good at pretending we were fine. Elijah and Jacob clearly had a bet going about when we were going to crack, which they tried to be subtle about and were not subtle about at all. Cherry, who was four months pregnant and had entered what I could only describe as her honesty era, said to both of us at separate points that we were lying and it was annoying. She was correct on both counts. 

The thing about being in the same space as someone you love and are not with is that the ordinary moments ambush you. Martin saying something funny and me laughing before I could stop myself. Him handing me a drink without being asked because he remembered how I took it. The way I automatically turned to say something to him at dinner before remembering that I was not doing that right now and looking away. 

Elijah noticed all of it. He said nothing. He just handed me a fresh drink one evening on the porch and sat nearby and that was the whole conversation and somehow that was enough. 

I was very glad to have the friends I had. Even when they were putting bets on my love life. 

I was insanely productive. I rewrote things I had already written perfectly. I had calls that did not need to happen. I reorganized my contacts into categories that served no real purpose. I made to-do lists, completed them within an hour, and made new ones. 

I was not sleeping well either but I was not telling anyone that. 

Hannah did not push me to talk about Martin again. She mentioned him once, gently, and I said I was not ready and she said okay and that was the end of it. Elijah did his Elijah thing, which was to say absolutely nothing about any of it but occasionally appear with good coffee and sit near me in a silence that somehow communicated both that he had noticed and that he respected my right to take my time. I had no idea how he did it. I had tried to replicate it in my own life and I genuinely did not have the gift. 

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